X EDITION
FANTASTIC DAYS X EDITION
Fantastic Day: Screening of the film “Espíritu Sagrado”.
Date: 27 March 2023 at 19:00h.
Place: Auditorium La Lonja from Orihuela.
Free screening of the film “Espíritu Sagrado”, with the attendance of its director, the filmmaker from Elche, Chema García Ibarra, its art director Leonor Díaz, and a meeting with the public and a colloquium moderated by Carlos Escolano. The film, framed in the field of science fiction, has been awarded and nominated at various national and international film events, such as Seattle International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, Feroz Awards and Berlanga Awards. This event is organised in collaboration with Orihuela Ateneo Socio-Cultural Association Viento del Pueblo, the Orihuela City Council and La Aventura Cine.
Fantastic Day: Presentation of the X edition of Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX, screening of short films and a talk on pioneers women of the fantastic in animated film. Within the framework of the EASDO Animation Conferences.
Date: 18 May 2023.
Place: School of Art and Design of Orihuela (EASDO).
10:30h-11:30h: Presentation of Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX by its organizers: Fran Mateu and Mario-Paul Martínez. Screening of short films.
11:30h- 13:30h: Conference “Pioneering women in independent animation” by the artist and director Elisa Martínez. Although many of them are practically unknown, since the origin of cinema they have contributed to the development, from independent production, of techniques, narratives and plastic styles, without which animation would not be the artistic field we know today. Screening of short films.
FANTAELX ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL CENTRES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Centre: María Auxiliadora – Salesianas School.
Place: Alicante.
Date: 17 March 2023.
Presentation of the X edition of Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX and screening + colloquium about a fantastic genre short film.
Centre: Sagrados Corazones School.
Place: Alicante.
Date: 24 March 2023.
Presentation of the X edition of Elche International Fantastic Film Festival – FANTAELX and screening + colloquium about a fantastic genre short film.
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
For our tenth edition, the illustrator Joan Martín Giménez designed the poster, inspired by the film Conan, the Barbarian (1982), directed by John Milius, which celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its release. In commemoration, the festival screened the great sword and sorcery classic.
As part of this tribute, the festival was attended by María Luisa Pino, editor and special effects expert who participated in the film as assistant editor, as well as in productions such as The Neverending Story and Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun.
Also in attendance was Paolo Bertetti, who came to Elche from Turin. He is one of the most internationally recognised figures in the field of studies on the narrative universe of Conan, a work that originated in the comics of Robert E. Howard, which has now expanded into various cultural products. Bertetti is also behind MUFANT, Turin’s famous museum of the fantastic genre.
The V International Congress of Fantastic Genre, Audiovisuals and New Technologies also took place, whose thematic line was the Territories of High Fantasy.
20:00h: ALJUB SESSIONS.
Screening of short films selected for this year’s edition on the Megascreen in the l’Aljub shopping centre (see map), the biggest interactive LED screen installed in a large Spanish shopping centre:
– Wednesday 2: Vacua, by Margalida Adrover (Spain). Duration: 15:34 min. In Valencian.
– Thursday 3: The Interrogation, by Marisa Cohen and Peter Issac Alexander (United States). Dur: 6:09 min.
– Friday 4: Papirola, by Fabián Molinaro (Spain). Dur: 7:08 min.
– Saturday 5: Ni a sol ni a sombra, by Talia Hernando (Spain). Dur: 12:37 min.
– Monday 7: Stuck, by David A. Roncone (Italy). Dur: 8:37 min.
– Tuesday 8th: Kafka’s Doll, by Bruno Simões (Spain). Dur: 10:40 min.
– Wednesday 9: Reaching the Vortex, by Pedro Poveda (Spain). Dur: 5:26 min.
– Thursday 10: Shakespeare for all Ages, by Hannes Rall (Germany). Dur: 2:42 min.
19:00h: PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK “RETROFANTASTIC. PERSPECTIVES OF AN IMAGINED PAST”.
Collective book presented by its authors and editors, where retro culture is approached within the multiple means of expression such as cinema, literature or video games. A work derived from the IV International Congress of Fantastic Genre, Audiovisuals and New Technologies, recently presented at the last edition of the SITGES International Fantastic Film Festival.
You can download an extract from the book at this link.
9:30h-18:40h: FIRST SESSION OF THE V INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF FANTASTIC GENRE, AUDIOVISUALS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
The aim of the congress is to disseminate research studies within the different thematic lines of the Fantastic Genre, covering all its possible variants and platforms: cinema, television, theatre, literature, comics, videogames, virtual reality, etc., whose main thematic line in this new edition is the Territories of High Fantasy.
9:30h. WELCOME AND INAUGURATION.
9:40h. Invited conference:
Sara Brown lives in North Wales and is Chair of the Language & Literature faculty at Signum University. She has been with Signum since 2012 and has taught on courses that have included ‘Modern Fantasy’ with Corey Olsen, ‘Tolkien’s World of Middle-earth’ with Verlyn Flieger, ‘Roots of the Mountain’ with Doug Anderson, ‘The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien’ with John Garth,and ‘Celtic Myth in Children’s Fantasy’ with Dimitra Fimi. Sara has also taught her own 12-week lecture series entitled ‘Tolkien in Context: Middle-earth as a Roadmap to Twentieth-Century Anxieties’, which examines Tolkien’s writing as a response to modernity. She completed her Ph.D. in Literature at Salford University in 2013and has given several lectures at various conferences on the topics of Tolkien, fantasy fiction, and fandom, and is regularly seen at Tolkien Society events in the UK. She currently serves on the editorial board of The Mallorn, the academic journal of the Tolkien Society and co-hosts on podcasts such as The Tolkien Experience, Rings of Power Wrap-Up, and The Prancing Pony.
10:10h. High fantasy: generic limits and thematic dispersions. Daniel Lumbreras Martínez (University of Oviedo and University of Glasgow).
10:30h. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon: from the hybridisation of fantasy sub-genres to the breaking of the rules of the High Fantasy game. Dr. Anna Tarragó (University of Barcelona).
10:50h. Of heroic avatars, metal myths and exceptional panoramas. Adaptation of the generic signs of epic fantasy in the audiovisual medium. Dr. Antonio Castro Balbuena (University of Almería).
11:10h. Death to New Flesh. David Cronenberg and his return to horror cinema. Dr. Juan García Crego (Complutense University of Madrid).
11:30h. High or Low Fantasy? An approach to the ontological debate and the suspension of disbelief. Joan Josep Pons López (University of Barcelona, UPC, Pompeu Fabra University and UOC).
11:50h. Science-Fiction: critical and creative cognition of the future world. Cynthia Bagousse (Aix-Marseille Université, France).
12:10h. Dungeons and Dragons and the influence of the western. Juan Carandell Rojo (University of Cordoba).
12:30h. Fantasy, blood and contempt. The aesthetics of the elven figure in The Witcher and Dragon Age sagas. Dr. María Fernández Rodríguez and Francisco David García Martín (University of Salamanca).
12:50h. Boueuse, immorale, sanglante: la mort des héros chez George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones, roman et série). Dr. Isabelle-Rachel Casta (University of Artois, France).
13:10h. High fantasy in the cinema of Isao Takahata: The paradigmatic case of The Adventures of Hols, Prince of the Sun. Dr. Raúl Fortes-Guerrero (University of Valencia).
13:30h. BREAK.
16:00h. Travelling to a world of wonders. Identification in high fantasy video games and other fictions. Dr. Lluís Anyó (Ramon Llull University).
16:20h. “Meanwhile…” Multiplicity of plots in VR Experiences. Dr. Andrew Connor (University of Edinburgh, Scotland).
16:40h. The reinterpretation of myths as a gameplay model. Cristina Ogando González (University of Salamanca).
17:00h. Adapting high fantasy from novels to comics: the symbolism in Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. Raúl Gisbert Cantó (University of Valencia).
17:20h. Decrepit: the female nude in old age as an agent of contemporary terror. The cases of La abuela, Relic and X. Dr. David Fuentefría Rodríguez (University of La Laguna).
17:40h. Fritz Lang and the territories of the fantastic. Dr. Juan Agustín Mancebo Roca (University of Castilla-La Mancha).
18:00h. Symptoms of speculative fiction and high fantasy in the painting of Remedios Varo. Dr. Ricardo González-García (University of Cantabria).
18:20h. C’est l’autre qui est vieux: the discourse of old age as a source of abjection and otherness in Paco Plaza’s La abuela. Dr. Marta Miquel-Baldellou (University of Lleida).
18:40h. CLOSING OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE CONGRESS.
20:00h: SCREENING OF THE FEATURE FILM “CONAN, THE BARBARIAN” (1982), BY JOHN MILIUS (SPANISH DUBBED).
Synopsis: A boy who belongs to a primitive tribe records in his memory the faces of the warriors who have exterminated his family and sold him to slave traders. Years later, the young man has become a strong and brave warrior. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of its release, this is one of the most representative films in the sword and sorcery sub-genre, inspired by the stories of Robert E. Howard.
9:30h-14:00h: SECOND SESSION OF THE V INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON FANTASTIC GENRE, AUDIOVISUALS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
9:30h. OPENING.
9:45h. PRESENTATION.
9:50h. Invited conference:
Paolo Bertetti works as teacher and researcher at the University of Siena (Italy). His research interests concern Narratology, Transmedia Storytelling, Semiotic Theory, Film Semiotics and Semiotics of Text. He is scientific director of the Fantasy and Science Fiction Museum (MUFANT) of Turin (Italy). Among his books: ll mito Conan. Identità e metamorfosi di un personaggio seriale tra letteratura, fumetto, cinema e televisione (2011), Il discorso audiovisivo. Teorie e strumenti semiotici (2012), Lo schermo dell’apparire (2013), Transmedia Archaeology (2014; with C. Scolari and M. Freeman), Che cos’è la transmedialità (2020).
10:20h. The high fantasy universe of Conan, the Barbarian. Experiences in the editing room with María Luisa Pino. Dr. Guillermo López Aliaga (Miguel Hernández University).
10:40h. High fantasy in Galician cultural idiosyncrasy. Sara Calvete Lorenzo (University of Santiago de Compostela).
11:00h. I’ve seen a dragon! The evolution of visual effects through high fantasy cinema. Dr. Damià Jordà Bou (Miguel Hernández University).
11:20h. Decapitated females that survive through art. Dr. Susana Guerrero Sempere (Miguel Hernández University) and Dr. Amparo Alonso-Sanz (University of Valencia).
11:40h. The epic of rotoscoping: Ralph Bakshi and The Lord of the Rings. Elisa Martínez and Fernando Fernández Torres (Miguel Hernández University).
12:00h. Who is behind the characters of High Fantasy? Charo Albaladejo Lardín, Ángel Tere Díaz García and Ana Gozálvez Sempere (Higher Level Training Cycle in Characterisation and Professional Make-up, IES El Pla de Alicante).
12:20h. Science as a means of veracity in Terry Pratchett’s high fantasy: Discworld. Dr. Francisco Cuéllar Santiago (Miguel Hernández University).
12:40h. Painting in High Fantasy before High Fantasy. Paula Sánchez Romero (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville).
13:00h. Beyond fantastic otherness. Second vision and decolonisation of magical ecosystems. Dr. Javier Moreno (Miguel Hernández University).
13:20h. The magical power of mirrors in high fantasy. Marina Díaz-Caneja Alepuz (Polytechnic University of Valencia) and Dr. Amparo Alepuz Rostoll (Miguel Hernández University).
13.40h. Nature and nostalgia: the tree as a symbol in fantasy stories. Dr. Celia Cuenca García (Centro de Estudios Superiores Barreira Arte+Diseño and Miguel Hernández University).
14:00h. CLOSING OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE CONGRESS.
17:00h-20:00h: SHORT FILMS SCREENINGS.
– Huida jurásica, by Maravillas Espin, Mounir Elhasnaoui, Esther Rodríguez, Fabio Castello, Natalia Martin and Santiago Dura. Dur: 1:30 min. Fake Trailer. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Nique le Privé (Fuck private property!), by Raphaël Daniel (France). Dur: 15:42 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Caraoscura, by Germán Sancho and Raúl Cerezo (Spain). Dur: 10:03 min.
– 8:19, by María Guerra (Spain). Dur: 13:21 min.
– Psicario, by Daniel Padró (Spain). Dur: 14:48 min.
– No clickbait, by Carla Gobe (Spain). Dur: 15:27 min.
– Staycation, by Russell Emanuel (United States). Dur: 1:20 min. Fake Trailer. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Operación Frankenstein, by José María Fernández de Vega (Spain). Dur: 11:00 min.
– Superjodidos, by Gastón Diego Haag (Spain). Dur: 19:00 min.
– La Criatura, by Lautaro Llao Navarra (Argentina). Dur: 14:35 min. Festival 1000 Gritos 2022 Winning Short Film (Out of competition).
– Darb’oħra (Once again), by Sarah Zammit (Malta). Dur: 13:32 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Denali, by Alberto Ortega (Spain). Dur: 12:51 min.
– Bowline Doble, by Frank Cazman (Spain). Dur: 19:56 min.
– Meantime, by Guillaume Scaillet (France). Dur: 12:28 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
12:00h: SCREENING OF THE DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW “HALL OF FRAME: MARÍA LUISA PINO” (2022), DIRECTED BY GUILLERMO LÓPEZ ALIAGA AND FRAN MATEU, UNDER THE DEVELOPMENT OF MASSIVA RESEARCH GROUP FROM MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ UNIVERSITY.
María Luisa Pino has worked in the world of special effects since the 1980s. Although she came to this area from film editing, participating as an assistant editor in such emblematic films as Conan, the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982), she has also established herself as one of the most influential figures in the history of special effects, and it is this second facet that this documentary interview explores. Within this field, a small sample of his work is reflected in cinema classics such as Clash of the Titans (Desmond Davis, 1981), The Neverending Story (Wolfgang Petersen, 1984), Red Sonja (Richard Fleischer, 1985), Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 1987) or The Rift (Juan Piquer, 1990), for whose work she was awarded the Goya for best special effects.
13:00h: COLLOQUIUM WITH MARÍA LUISA PINO AND GUILLERMO LÓPEZ ALIAGA.
17:00h-19:00h: SHORT FILMS SCREENINGS.
– O, by Dominik Balkow (Germany). Dur: 14:30 min.
– El Semblante, by Carlos Moriana and Raúl Cerezo (Spain). Dur: 15:00 min.
– Declin, by Elise Huyssen (France). Dur: 14:30 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– El umbral, by Javier Carneros Lorenzo (Spain). Dur: 16:09 min.
– Ashkasha, by Lara Maltz (Spain). Dur: 6:17 min.
– 665, by Juan De Dios Garduño (Spain). Dur: 10:00 min.
– For Pete’s Sake, by Gerald B. Fillmore (Spain). Dur: 13:10 min.
– The Day “IT” Came, by Walter Bender (United States). Dur: 1:30 min. Fake Trailer (Subtitled in Valencian).
– The Newcomer, by Ivan Villamel (Spain). Dur: 15:00 min.
– THE BLACK reCAT, by Paolo Gaudio (Italy). Dur: 5:44 min.
– Zombie Meteor, by Alfonso Fulgencio and José Luis Farias (Spain). Dur: 14:10 min.
Break from 19:00h to 19:30h.
19:30h-21:00h: SHORT FILMS SCREENINGS* + CLOSING AND AWARDS CEREMONY.
– Marked, by Catherine Bonny (Australia). Dur: 13:47 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Phonorama, by Alex Rey (Alicante). Dur: 12:40 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Flesh and Bones, by Eric Romero (Estonia). Dur: 1:00 min. Fake Trailer (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Colonie, by Romain Daudet-Jahan (France). Dur: 13:20 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– Family, by Óscar La Red (Alicante). Dur: 13:06 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
– The Tenant, by Lucas Paulino and Ángel Torres (Spain). Dur: 9:46 min. (Subtitled in Valencian).
* This block has special subtitling with audio description for the hearing impaired.
– Best Fake Trailer: gift + permanent publication of the fake trailer on the festival website.
– Best International Short Film: gift + direct access to the Sax International Film Festival (Alicante).
– Best National Short Film: gift + direct access to the Horror and Fantastic Short Film Festival 1000 Gritos from Buenos Aires (Argentina).
– Best Short Film from Alicante: gift + direct access to the festival Navidades Sangrientas – Weekend Horror Awards from Alicante (Spain).
– Best “Social and Fantastic” Short Film: gift + direct access to the Sant Joan d’Alacant Film Festival (Alicante).
* All festival activities are free of charge until full capacity is reached, with no need to reserve an invitation in advance.
* The screenings of short films are not recommended for children under 18 years of age.